OK, so Day 1 of Preseason Thunder was a dud when it came to watching NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock cars roaring around Daytona International Speedway’s 2.5-mile tri-oval course.

But the day was not a complete washout. The Fan Fest, where race fans and drivers get to mingle in the Speedway’s FanZone area, attracted thousands of fans. Those same fans will be invited back Friday on their same ticket since no cars made it out to the track.

The inclement weather caused drivers to get so bored in the garage area, they wandered over to the media center for entertainment.

Brad Keselowski and Rusty Wallace showed up together. Wallace once drove the No. 2 Team Penske Racing machine, now in the hands of Keselowski. Somehow, the discussion turned to wild times from Wallace’s past.

“A radio station in Charlotte decided we were going to have this world record attempt from one side of Charlotte to the other and we didn’t care about anything,” Wallace said. “Rick Hendrick gave us brand=new Pontiac Trans-Ams and me and John Boy and Billy, his guys were in one car and I was in another car. We took off and I was running through the streets at 140 mph and the cops were closing down the road and waving me by and cheering me on. It was live on radio. We used to do stuff like that and get away with it. Nowadays, they’d throw our ass in jail, no problem.”

The last drive to stop in for a visit was Jeff Gordon, who shaved three weeks of quality beard to meet the press Thursday. The “Wonder Boy” of 1993 is now a 42-year-old father of two. A sports writer asked Gordon, “When you look at the all-time numbers in the Cup Series, like you and a bunch of old guys are up at the top.”

Gordon replied, “Thank you. I appreciate that. I shave this morning because I had a beard, and I looked in the mirror, and I was like, ‘Wow, man, I am really gray.’ I felt pretty old this morning. I was actually feeling a lot younger after I shaved until now.”